Antisemitism is on the rise across the United States. The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitic behavior nationwide, found 2,717 incidents in 2021, a 34 percent increase over 2020, accompanied by an unabashed rise and weaponization of fascism and political violence, the attacks more brazen, more violent, more deadly and more politically strategic. For example, Charlottesville (where a woman was murdered, after which Trump said there were “good people” on both sides) and The Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh.

“This is the highest total we have ever tracked in more than 40 years of doing this work,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League said on “The Newshour” on PBS. “And we should keep in mind that antisemitic acts were going down in the United States for almost 15 years, and then, in 2016, they started to move up. And we’re now at the point where we have nearly triple the number of incidents today that we did in 2015.”

In 2022, assaults increased 167 percent, with increases in incidents of vandalism and harassment.

“So I think antisemitism really isn’t just a Jewish problem. It’s an American problem,” he asserted. “[Antisemitism] is typically the canary in the coal mine. And so as things are beginning to unravel more broadly, the Jewish community is often the target of scapegoating and victimized in that way.”

Antisemitism is not new in America, but Greenblatt warned:  “We have never seen a situation like this before. You had Jews being beaten and brutalized in broad daylight, say, in the middle of Times Square or Los Angeles or the Strip in Las Vegas, where people who were simply identified as Jewish came under assault and attack. That was new. And I think what you’re seeing is a kind of normalization of antisemitism and extremism.”

Celebrities like Kanye West, who command the following of millions, use social media to incite attacks on Jews. Only last week, a 63-year old man was attacked in Central Park by a man who shouted antisemitic slogans and had a sign, Kanye 2024.

In just the few weeks since the recent takeover of Twitter by billionaire Elon Musk, who fired moderators and brought back those who were thrown off for inciting violence, hate-filled tweets have increased five-fold.

“The Holocaust didn’t begin with the systematic murder of 6 million Jews, it began with rhetoric, normalization of rhetoric that the average person picked up on and ran with; it began with attacks on individuals, businesses, communities, perpetrated by citizens with permission by rhetoric,” Rabbi Michael Knopf, Temple Beth-el, Richmond, told “All Things Considered’ on NPR.

“We ought not to wait around for another Charlottesville, another [Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in] Pittsburgh. “When it manifests, it requires calling out.”

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, chairing the first-ever White House summit to combat antisemitism and hate-fueled violence, cited “an epidemic of hate, a rapid rise in antisemitic rhetoric and acts. Let me be clear, words matter. People are no longer saying the quiet parts out loud, they are literally screaming them.”

President Biden is taking action, establishing an inter-agency group led by Domestic Policy Council staff and National Security Council staff to increase and better coordinate federal government efforts to counter antisemitism, Islamophobia and related forms of bias and discrimination. The president also has secured the largest increase in federal funding ever for the physical security of non-profits, including synagogues and Jewish Community Centers.

One can almost understand antisemitism rearing up in places where there are few Jews and therefore so easy to fabricate the fantastical conspiracies and caricatures. But New York City? Long Island? New York State, which has the largest population of Jews outside of Israel and is the most richly filled melting pot of nationalities, religions, races on the planet? What does that say?

Gov. Kathy Hochul came out to a recent Shine a Light on Antisemitism event in Times Square after announcing the launch of a new statewide Hate and Bias Prevention Unit, within the state’s Division of Human Rights. The unit is charged with leading public education and outreach efforts, serving as an early warning detection system in local communities, and quickly mobilizing to support areas and communities in which a bias incident has occurred.

“We will not let the rise in hate incidents that we see happening online, across the country and across the world, take root here at home,”Hochul said.

The governor announced $96 million in state and federal funding to safeguard nonprofit, community-based organizations at risk of hate crimes and attacks and directed $10 million in state grant funds to support county governments as they develop domestic terrorism prevention plans and threat assessment and management teams.

“We live in a very challenging world, and the only thing we can use to overcome hatred, intolerance, prejudice and antisemitism is light because light overcomes darkness and hatred,” Nassau County Legislator Arnold W. Drucker (D-Plainview) said at a “Latkes and Lights” celebration at the county executive building.

Drucker, a member of the county’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, which was formed in May, said “the biggest problem is education.”  He has reached out to Hochul’s office to be named a Long Island representative in the satellite offices she is setting up throughout the state.

But, in fact, there are many instances of anti-Semitism on Long Island, including leaflets left in neighborhoods suggesting a Jewish cabal is controlling government, and only weeks ago, a Long Island man arrested at Penn Station with weapons who had made threats against the Jewish community.

Just this month, Municipal Leaders Against Anti-Semitism was formed to counter an uptick in antisemitic incidents in Nassau County. There were 28 so far this year, compared to 24 in 2021.

At a Hanukkah reception at the White House, Biden said “silence is complicity and we must forcefully say that all forms of hate, antisemitism and violence can have no safe harbor in America.”

Happy Hanukkah for all those who celebrate – proudly.